I had no idea people posted manicures here! I've apparently been away from Craftster for entirely too long.

This past year I've done quite a bit of nail art (and not really much else, craft-wise), so I thought I would share a few of my favorite designs. All are painted on my natural nails using nail polish, and quite a few of these were done for various online competitions. If anyone is curious about the polishes used, I'm happy to share, just ask (i also have them listed on my blog).

I bet it is hard to change your manicure and get rid of one design for another...but at least you have pics!

how long does it take to do one set on average?

Thanks! I won two contests, with the Calvin & Hobbes design and the Alice in Wonderland design.All of these I wore for about a week, wasn't too keen on giving them up any sooner, lol. Some were very time-intensive, for example, I think the Calvin & Hobbes and Mario Bros. manicures took around five hours each to do. The stamped manicures were closer to an hour. I don't normally spend more than an hour or two on a design unless its for a contest.

WOW! THese are amazing! Are you ambidextrous? Coz even IF I could make my left hand look this good, I guarantee the right hand would be somewhat.... lacking, to understate it....

I'm not too bad at painting with my non-dominant hand but I'd never be able to pull off anything too complicated. For stamped designs I will do both hands, but for some of the more intensive nail art designs, I just go for something that coordinates with the design (frankly I'm sick of nail polish by the time I get the one hand done, lol). Here are some examples:

I wonder if you could paint them on the purchased nails and then put them over your own nails...I am also sure that only one hand would look decent... if I tried to paint with my right hand!

Yea, you could totally do that! I've never worn press-on nails before, but I've seen lots of people selling hand-painted sets, would be a lot of fun for special occassions. It certainly would be a hell of a lot easier painting on something that is not attached to you!

fascinating...I like that you do each hand a bit different...looks like fun...I am amazed at all of the posts recently about nail art...there are really some talented people who do such clever stuff in such a small space!